Compared to December 31, 2023, wherein liquor worth ₹95.69 crore was sold on New Year’s Eve this year, which was 12.86% higher. On December 31, 2023, liquor sales were 37.23% higher than 2022 Christmas Eve.
The highest liquor sold on New Year’s Eve was at the Palarivattom Ravipuram outlet. Liquor worth ₹92.31 lakh was sold here, followed by Thiruvananthapuram Powerhouse Road outlet (₹86.65 lakh), Edappally Kadavanthra (₹79.98 lakh), Kollam Kavanad Ashram (₹79.20 lakh) and Chalakudy (₹75.11 lakh).
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Kerala’s beverage outlets recorded sales at ₹152.06 crore in during December 24 and 25, 2024. Tipplers in Kerala went a step further on New Year’s Eve, when they consumed alcohol worth ₹108 crore.
Compared to the 2024 New Year’s Eve, sales this time increase by ₹13 crore, making it an all-time high. The figures were released by the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (KSBC), the sole wholesaler of alcoholic drinks in the state, DajiWorld.com reported.
Alcohol in the state was sold through 277 retail outlets owned by the Corporation. On December 24, sales were at ₹97.42 crore, while on Christmas day, they were at ₹54.64 crore.
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There has been a sizeable increase in sales, compared to the 2023 Christmas period when the sales figure was Rs 122.14 crore. Incidentally, as sales peaking with the last quarter left in the current financial year, alcohol sales in the state is expected to better the previous fiscal’s sales, which touched ₹19,088.68 crore, up from ₹18,510.98 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal.
Over the years, the Kerala state exchequer has collected heavy taxes through beer and liquor sales. In the last fiscal, it generated a staggering ₹16,609.63 crore, up from Rs ₹16,189.55 crore in 2022-23.
According to News18.com, there are 32.9 lakh people who consume alcohol out of the 3.34 crore population, which includes 29.8 lakh men and 3.1 lakh women. Around five lakh people consume liquor daily. Of this, as many as 83,851 people, including 1,043 women, are addicted to alcohol.
